It  is with sadness that I witnessed the president of the United States tell the  world that African-Americans are incapable of functioning as responsible  citizens at the most basic level.

 

Our  first White African American leader said:

 

You  know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my  son.  Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35  years ago.  And when you think about why, in the African American community  at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it's  important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this  issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go  away.

There  are very few African American men in this country who haven't had the experience  of being followed when they were shopping in a department store.  That  includes me.  There are very few African American men who haven't had the  experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors  of cars.  That happens to me - at least before I was a senator.  There  are very few African Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an  elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until  she had a chance to get off.  That happens often.

And  I don't want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the  African American community interprets what happened one night in Florida.   And it's inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.  The  African American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of  racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws - everything from the  death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws.  And that ends up having an  impact in terms of how people interpret the case.

 

Although  he would know best whether he, 35 years ago, would be adjudged a thug and  potential murderer who could be stopped from taking the life of another only by  being shot, it is another thing to indict an entire group as incapable of  behaving as citizens.

 

In  a court of law:

 

...  the jury is to determine the facts of this case. You are the sole and exclusive  judges of the facts. You alone determine what evidence to accept, how important  any evidence is that you do accept, and what conclusions to draw from all the  evidence. You must apply the law as I give it to you to the facts as you  determine them to be, in order to decide whether the Commonwealth has proved the  defendant guilty of this charge (these charges).

You  should determine the facts based solely on a fair consideration of the evidence.  You are to be completely fair and impartial, and you are not to be swayed by  prejudice or by sympathy, by personal likes or dislikes, toward either side. You  are not to allow yourselves to be influenced because the offense(s) charged is  (are) popular or unpopular with the public...

In  short, you are to confine your deliberations to the evidence and nothing but the  evidence[.] ...

Your  verdict must be based solely on the evidence developed at trial. It would be  improper for you to consider any personal feelings about the defendant's race,  religion, national origin, sex or age.

It  would be equally improper for you to allow any feelings you might have about the  nature of the crime to interfere with your  decision.

 

(The  above are jury  instructions from the Commonwealth  of Massachusetts, yet they can still be  considered representative of the duties with which juries are charged.   Check out others if you like.)

 

Generally,  jury duty is a right/responsibility of citizenship.

 

To  plainly state that "the African-American community is looking at this issue [and  presumably others] through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go  away" is to plainly state that the African-American community is incapable of  serving on a jury where a verdict is based solely on the application of the  relevant law to the evidence developed at trial.

 

No  more.  No less.

 

No  "baggage" influencing the call.

 

No  sets of experiences, no histories.

 

"No  nothing."

 

Justice  is blind.

 

Since,  according to Obama, the experiences and history do not go away, then these  "personal feelings" are inescapable.

 

Though  he did not truly explicate his apparently <snip>ing of others andof  blacks statements re: department stores, locks clicking, and purse-clutching, he  did offer a reason:

 

...  African American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal  justice system; that they're disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of  violence.

 

Of  note, BHO chose not to offer Jesse's  seemingly similar feelings toward blacks that would make the reactions Obama  seems to condemn near universal:

 

There  is nothing more painful to me ... than to walk down the street and hear  footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody  white and feel relieved.

 

(Whites  + White Hispanics (ask the media) + African-Americans = just about everybody =  near-universal.)

 

Given  the above, it seems odd that Obama would indict all others from being what is  arguably cautious and protective of their lives and property from a group that  "disproportionately" includes "perpetrators of violence" (and possibly other  crimes).

 

It  is also a bit odd that he discussed whether Trayvon would have been justified in  shooting George if Zimmerman had been in a car following Martin.  Perhaps a  better question would have been whether Martin would have been justified in  shooting Zimmerman if George had been pounding Trayvon's head on the  cement.

 

The  bottom line is that Obama has chosen to disenfranchise blacks wholesale from the  right/responsibility to serve as jurors -- i.e., to act as responsible citizens  -- by labeling them as persons incapable of deciding cases on the  merits.

 

We  will have to see if Judge  Rosemarie Aquilina will bar the empaneling of blacks in order to prevent  "not honoring the president."

 

Michael  Applebaum is a medical doctor and lawyer practicing in  Chicago.

bumped